Going Green in Urbania
This past weekend I took a foray to the hinterlands, visiting two of the most liberal cities in our nation in one weekend. I’m Susan Allen stay tuned for OpenRange. I crossed the great cultural divide from the east to the west side of the cascades and spent the weekend in two of our nations most liberal and green cities, Portland and Seattle. In Portland I heard of plans to renovate the federal building by adding a two hundred foot vertical garden covering the exterior, all part of a one hundred and thirty- three million dollar venture that John McCain has ranked second on a list of the 100 worst stimulus-financed projects. Who’s going to tend the garden ? Window washers? Another hot topic is required recycling of table scraps. Coyotes and raccoons will have a field day with those curbside containers! In Seattle I stayed in a luxury “green” hotel. The hotel industry must adore Al Gore as they now reap big “green” bucks from being “eco –friendly.” Going green translates to starkly decorated, dimly lit rooms, no morning papers, piddley shower pressure, and embossed cards on recycled paper informing one that the organic sheets would remain unchanged. At the end of the weekend it dawned on me that the gung ho go green crowd desperately wants to be like country folk. Heck we’ve always recycled table scrapes, (isn't that what dogs are for) washed our sheets maybe once a week, used scratchy TP to save septic systems and grown beans and tomatoes vertically. We’re cool!